Another fitness company gets a big check

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition is fueled by ButcherBox, your neighborhood organic butcher delivering the tastiest all-natural grass-fed meats right to your door. You’re training hard for the Open, so why not reward all that hard work with a box of organic grass-fed beef, chicken and pork to keep you fueled up, all for less than $6 per meal. And if you order this week, you’ll get $20 off
+ a free packet of bacon. Seriously though, free bacon. 

“Blessings don’t come to you, blessings flow through you.” — Inky Johnson

BABY, I CAN SEE YOUR HALO.

Your halo, halo, halo.

Last week, we told you that DoughBar got a $300,000 shark bite after their appearance on Shark Tank — making them the fifth company to come out of the CrossFit industry.

Yesterday, Halo Neuroscience announced that they raised $13M in their Series B — Series B basically means this is the second time they went out to investors and “who wants in.” Obviously a few deep pockets raised their hands.

So what’s the big deal?

Halo Neuroscience makes Halo Sport, the neurostimulator headset that primes the motor cortex to a state of “hyperlearning.” Basically, the part of your brain that says “taking notes” when it comes to something you learn by muscle memory. The purpose is to help you learn faster, and no it doesn’t work with exams. That’s a different part of the brain.

Halo Sport is used by CrossFit Games athletes like Kari Pearce, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Maddy Myers, and a bunch of NBA, MLB, NFL and Olympic athletes.

What’re they gonna use all that dough for?

No major details yet, but co-founder Daniel Chao said they’re gonna “build and launch two new products that will further unlock human potential.” Hopefully, they won’t cost $750.

COFFEE BREAK CONVERSATIONS

What to tell your friend who’s equipment breaks during a WOD…

You improvise, like what Daniel did when one of the handles on his ski erg broke during a competition. This is why you always incorporate a little wood chopping into your training.

THINGS TO…

KNOW: The Effects of Caffeine 

Hustle juice. A yawn is a silent scream for coffee. No lift till latte. We get it; coffee gets you going in the morning. But did you know about all the other wonderful benefits our caffeine friend bestows on us? 

REFILL PLEASE.

EAT: Healthier Flourless Monster Cookies

This Healthy Flourless Monster Cookie recipe is a wholesome take on a childhood classic. Packed with peanut butter flavor, chocolate chips, coconut, chocolate candy pieces and nuts.

COOKIE MONSTER.

BUY: Personalized CrossFit Open Tees

For a limited time, add your name to the official 2018 Reebok CrossFit Open tee or tank. 

ADD TO CART.

Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is fueled by

CHALK UP COMMUNITY

• A SWITCH FROM BODYBUILDING — Lulu Faria had been bodybuilding for three years with the goal of “looking good naked.” Not a bad goal but when she got bored of that routine she decided to give CrossFit Solace a shot and discovered so much more than fitness. “I started learning that my body was capable of doing so much more than just looking good. Since I wasn’t staring at a mirror during CrossFit, like I did during bodybuilding, I was suddenly less distracted. I stopped worrying about what I looked like while I was
  lifting.”
• BOB HARPER — It’s been one year since the celebrity trainer suffered a massive heart attack. He opens up about his brush with death and how “everything about [his] life is different now.”

CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES (a highlight reel around social media of CrossFit pros and average joes)

Can you balance a cup of water on the bottom of a kettlebell while doing a Turkish get-up? • Ava Khalipa is almost at the end of her two-year long leukemia treatment with one more IV chemo and treatment finished March 29 • Ninty-two-year-old Betty is crushing some burpees at CrossFit Kinnick • Hilary Froning turned Rich’s old jersey into a pullover for her little one.

Jessica Griffith on Growing Through Fitness Seasons…“From September to December, I was super discouraged because I could hardly consistently squat snatch 155. Thoughts of ‘good luck getting by at the Games with THIS lift’, ‘this lift is too technical for you’, ‘you’re not mobile enough’, ‘your technique sucks’ flooded my head and I started dreading snatch days. In hindsight, I realize it was a season. There’s a time and place to be at the top of your game — and that’s not meant to be year round. CrossFit is a constant building process and you have to go through lots of phases to be a well rounded
athlete. So what did I learn today? Just like a flower needs pruning to grow back bigger and better, so do we!! Don’t be discouraged when you get ‘cut back’ and appear smaller and weaker — know there’s bigger and better growth coming!!”

“Before Recovering From My Drug Addiction, I First Had to Accept It” by Seth Blais, Press Herald

A few years before finally finding real sobriety and recovery, I made several attempts to stop using drugs and alcohol. During one struggle, mostly trying to save my failing marriage, I made a pledge to stay completely abstinent from all drugs and alcohol.

Even to my closest friends, I couldn’t be honest about why I suddenly decided to avoid alcohol. I would dodge their questions or pass it off as an attempt to get into peak physical shape: “You know—for Crossfit and stuff.” That wasn’t a complete lie, as I had recently taken a genuine interest in Crossfit and even started training for a local competition.

My abstinence from alcohol lasted far longer than my almost non-existent abstinence from other drugs. I did somehow manage to enter—and win—that local Crossfit competition. I showed up the morning of the event wearing my wrist wraps, not because I needed them for support, but because I was hiding the track marks left behind from injecting heroin. Unbeknownst to my workout partner, I wouldn’t have even been able to get out of bed had I not used heroin earlier that morning.

2/10: Costa Rica w/ VoyEdge RX (Puerto Viejo, Costa Rice)2/10: Strength Is (Moorpark, CA)

2/10: Mirror Image CrossFit’s Cupid’s Clash (Panama City, FL)

2/10: New WODs On the Block – The Third Wheel (Nationwide)

2/10: Tuff Love (Boulder, CO)

2/10: A League of Their Own: A Women’s Only Challenge (San Antonio, TX)

2/10: Mayhem Showdown 2018 (Cookeville, TN) 

2/16 – 2/18: Iron Sharpens Iron (Miami, FL)

2/17: Lovers and Lifters (Springfield, KY)

2/17: Steel Rail Shootout 2018 (McComb, MS)

2/17: Wynwood Throwdown (Miami, FL)

2/17 – 2/18: The Shred Fest (Orlando, FL)

2/22: CrossFit Open 18.1 (Worldwide)

3/1: CrossFit Open 18.2 (Worldwide)

3/8: CrossFit Open 18.3 (Worldwide)

3/10: Women Who WOD (Barbados)

3/15: CrossFit Open 18.4 (Worldwide)

3/22: CrossFit Open 18.5 (Worldwide)

3/23 – 4/26: Garage Games Junior Open (Worldwide)

4/7: Battle of the Badges (Anaheim, CA)

4/7: The Revolution (San Antonio, TX)

4/14: Battle for the Mountain (Dawsonville, GA)

4/14 – 4/15: Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Challenge (Columbia, MD)

4/14 – 4/15: WOD Wars Fitfest (Dunedin, FL)

4/21: Festivus Games (Nationwide)

4/28: Battleground SoCal (Wimington, CA)

4/28: Girls Gone Rx (Cincinnati, OH)

4/28 – 4/29: Walter’s Cup Throwdown (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

5/4 – 5/6: European Masters Throwdown (Budapest, Hungary)

5/5 – 5/6: Tribal Clash (Quarteira, Portugal)

5/5: Cinco de Mayo Classic (San Antonio, TX)

5/11 – 5/12: Beast Mode Games (Greenville, SC)

5/19: Raising the Bar for Recovery (Medina, OH)

5/19: East Coast Battle (Hanover, MD)